A very well know VC asked me to write a blog post a few years ago on the subject. I compiled 7 pages of notes. And could have done on forever. These were just

A very well know VC asked me to write a blog post a few years ago on the subject. I compiled 7 pages of notes. And could have done on forever. These were just bullet points. I then started to strategize that I would negotiate with the VC who made the request saying that I needed to be able to do 3 blog posts over time not just one. Then maybe I would ask for another two. You know, to get maximum exposure. Then I realized that there would simply be to many forks to consider and that there are simply to many "what if's" and dependencies. And maybe people would actually be dangerous with a little knowledge. And then I might even deprecate my own advantage since people always underestimate me it is part of the routine in a way. I make decisions based on what I see at a particular point in time and that is always changing. So to try and give all of the possibilities and things that I think about is really really hard. And my reactions are immediate I don't even really have to think that much to come up with them. I am sure there are other analogies and it's the same reason that you can't just read a book on playing cards (I don't play cards so I may be off on this one). It's a touch and feel and experience thing that guides what I do. Years ago I was on the phone with someone and raised a price by 50% just when I heard the particular tone in the voice in the first 2 seconds. How can you do that if you don't know what it is I am hearing that made me do that? And what if there are 500 signals that I am interpreting at the same time? Not that I couldn't say valuable things of course or that it wouldn't be fun! By the way I can always tell when someone has read a book on negotiation or tries to come across as a "negotiator". And that is even though I've never touched a book myself on the subject (I don't want to mess with my thinking). I can just spot it by speech pattern or the things that they suggest or the way that they operate.